albină

Forms

albină f (plural albine)^[1] The Psaltirea Scheiană has the rhotacized form albire: „Cu albirile” “with the bees” (Psalm 117:12).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *alvīna (“beehive”), formed on alvus (“belly, hollow; beehive”).^{[3][4][5][1][6]} Tiktin derives it from alveus (“beehive”) with the suffix -ină.^[2] It survives in all four branches: Aromanian alghinã, Megleno-Romanian ălbină and Istro-Romanian albire.^[4][3][1] The only Romance parallels are in Italian and Rhaeto-Romance dialects, among them Venetian albina (“beehive”).^[3][1]

The DAR explains the step from “hive” to “bee” by comparing Albanian bletë, which means both “hive” and “bee”;^[4] Ciorănescu prefers a phrase like Vulgar Latin *musca alvīna (“hive fly”), in which the adjective later stood for the whole, and notes that muscă “fly” still means a swarm in beekeeping.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, in Psalm 117:12, where the enemies surround the psalmist like bees.^[3][7] MDA2 gives Coresi's Molitvenic of 1564 as its first source.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept the sense “bee” throughout; its only other sense is a plant name, the orchid Ophrys cornuta, whose flower looks like a bee.^[5][4] Diminutives are recorded from 1778 (albinică, albiniță, albinuță), and the collective albinet “swarm” and albiniș “place full of bees” from Budai-Deleanu's lexicon of 1818.^[3] The beekeeper's name albinar (1853) gave albinărel, a name of the bee-eater.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – first record, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[3]
• 1564 – in Coresi's Molitvenic.^[8]
• 1570 – albinele “the bees” in Coresi's psalter.^[7]
• c. 1573–1578 – the rhotacized albirile in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[2]
• 1778 – the diminutives albinică, albiniță and albinuță.^[3]
• 1818 – albinet “swarm” and albinărie “beekeeping” in Budai-Deleanu's lexicon.^[3]
• 1853 – albinar “beekeeper”.^[3]
• 1877 – albinărel “bee-eater”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bee, the honeybee (Apis mellifera), which lives in colonies and makes honey and wax.^[5][1]
2. An orchid with violet flowers that look like a bee (Ophrys cornuta).^[5][4]

Word family

• albinar
• albinărel
• albinet
• albiniș
• albinuță

Related words

• Aromanian alghinã
• Latin alvus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. albínă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. albină
4. ^ a b c d e f Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. albină
5. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 25
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 393
7. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 117:12
8. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 35